The Rates are calculated per 100,000 population for each LGA where the LGA population is greater than 3000. Caution should be used when comparing rates when incident numbers are small, since large percentage change in rates between periods will result from small changes in incident counts. The Rates are calculated using the population data were obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics publication: Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2009-2010 (cat. no. 3218.0). Population figures for 2010 were applied to 2010 and 2011 incident data as no population data for 2011 was available at the time of preparation.

For the Rank, please note that LGAs with populations lower than 3000 are excluded because rate calculations for these areas are very sensitive to small changes in population sizes and the number of incidents recorded. Rate calculations should also be treated very cautiously for LGAs that have high visitor numbers relative to their residential population. This is because rate calculations are based on estimated residential population and no adjustment has been made for the number of people visiting each LGA per year. For this reason Sydney LGA and LGAs without the offence have also been excluded.